Storms keep Ewing-Hopewell from finishing off Montgomery

HAMILTON — The Ewing-Hopewell 14-year-old Babe Ruth All Stars needed one more run in the top of the fifth and one more out in the bottom to go home winners.

But it got neither, as Wednesday night’s District 1 game with Montgomery was suspended with two outs in the bottom of the fifth and E-H holding an 11-2 lead.

Had E-H scored once more in a five-run fifth, and then gotten three outs in the bottom of the inning it would have won by the 10-run mercy rule. As it turns out, everybody comes back to finish the final 2.1 innings.

“Totally frustrating,” Ewing-Hopewell manager Joe Gambino said. “And you know what, I’m a weather checker guy and I knew this was coming. I was just keeping my fingers crossed to get through it. How much closer can we be? Unfortunately, the weather is the weather and will dictate when we get this done.”

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The game will resume at 6 p.m. Thursday at Switlik Park with Montgomery batting and Lawrence Levy on first base. Wednesday’s scheduled second game between Nottingham and West Windsor-Plainsboro will be played approximately 30 minutes after the E-H-Montgomery game concludes.

The tournament schedule is now pushed back one day, with Friday still being an off day for Fourth of July.

Ewing-Hopewell is still in pretty good shape to win its first game as a combined team, thanks to an outstanding pitching performance by Jack Kandell and hitting show by 13-year-old leadoff man Luke Blair.

Kandell was outstanding for four innings, marred only by some sweat-induced control issues in the second. He did not allow a hit and struck out 12, including four in the fourth when a runner reached on a passed ball. The Pennington product struck out the final nine he faced.

“Jack’s our ace,” Gambino said. “As I said, our pitching and our defense will take us through this tournament. It’s common for Jack to throw strikes and have that type of performance. All spring he’s been pitching well.”

Ewing-Hopewell took a 1-0 lead in the first when Blair doubled, Dom Gambino hit a bloop single and Jake Tobia delivered a sacrifice fly.

Kandell struck out the side in the first, but ran into control issues in the bottom of the second when he hit Chris Thomas and walked Palmer Smith. Both eventually scored on wild pitches to give Montgomery a 2-1 lead without a hit.

“Actually, the problem was sweat,” Gambino said. “It was so hot, we were looking for a resin bag for his hand. He was sweating so much he just kind of lost his grip and got a little wild there.”

It didn’t take long for E-H to reclaim the advantage.

In the top of the third Kenny Sullivan walked, Andrew Blake was hit by a pitch and lefty Blair pulled one over the right field fence to make it 4-2. E-H re-loaded the bases on a single and two walks and Sam Margulis hit an infield pop-up that scored a run when two infielders bumped into each other making the catch.

An RBI single by Blair pushed E-H’s lead to 6-2, and Montgomery got out of further trouble by turning a 1-2-3 double play with the bases loaded to end the inning.

Ewing-Hopewell broke it open in the fifth inning as Sullivan hit a two-run double and later scored on a double steal; and Blake and Blair added RBI singles to make it 11-2.

At this point in the game, Blair is 4-for-4 with five RBI, eight total bases and two runs scored out of the leadoff spot.

“He’s a 13-year-old stud,” Gambino said. “We have two 13s at the top and bottom (Blair and Blake). He’s a new addition that just makes our team deeper.”

Unfortunately for H-E, the Switlik puddles were also getting deeper as he spoke, meaning everybody was comin’ back Thursday.